Academics

Details

While abroad, I took classes specifically related to host country’s culture and/or society.

Course topics: Spanish Language, Argentine History, Social Organizations, Cultural Icons

While abroad, I took courses taught primarily for study abroad students.

3 of my courses

I was directly enrolled in a national university and took classes primarily with national students.

1 course

Comments: I took an advanced level Spanish class, a cultural icons class, and a social organizations class with other Americans. Most of the time in the social organizations class, however, was spent at our internship locations where we worked with natives. My fourth class was a history seminar at the University of Buenos Aires, the best university in the country, where I learned alongside soon to graduate history majors.

Living Experience

Details

Home stay – I interacted on a daily basis with non-university aged nationals.

I lived with a host mother, father and sister. I interacted with my host parents while eating dinner, watching soccer, meeting family friends etc. almost every day.

I had daily interaction with university-aged national(s) outside of classroom

I spent the most time with a girls soccer team that I joined and played with almost every other day. We had practices and games every week and would hang out together afterward. I met up with native friends from the local universities almost every weekend.

Comments: I spent the most amount of time speaking Spanish with my host mother, soccer team, language partner and program assistants. I met with a language assistant once a week so that I could work on my speaking skills while also helping an English language student improve her skills. My partner, Mica, invited me to drink mate in the park with her and go to the movies. We became friends and learned a lot from each other. I was also able to practice speaking Spanish with the program assistants. The assistants were students of local universities with part time jobs at the study abroad building. They were eager to help us learn and show us the city, so spent time with them during several weekends.

Integration into Society

Details

Internship – I took part in a mentored experience within a formal, professional work setting.

I worked at Hecho en Buenos Aires with a native volunteer and a Chilean boss. The organization creates a magazine that homeless people can sell to make a living. I co-authored a report of the first decade of the organization.

Immersion in foreign language – I used this language to communicate on a daily basis.

Whether I was at my host families apartment, in the streets, at my internship or in class, I was almost always speaking Spanish.

Comments: I was speaking Spanish during most of my time in Argentina. And when I wasn’t talking in Spanish, I spent a lot of time reading for class or listening to Argentina cooking shows. My host mother told me at the end of the semester that my language had improved a lot from beginning to end. Indeed, interacted in Spanish got much easier by the end of the semester.